— The Monitor =
NEBRASKA’S WEEKLY NEWSPAPER DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF COLORED AMERICANS
' THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
$2,00 a \ | —5 Cents a Copy. OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, JULY 9, 1926Vol. XII.—No. 2.Whole Number 572
COLOR! | AMERICAN
MOST I CIVEN FULL
RICH ASCII N
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Colonel Theo Roosevelt Declares
That the holding of Such
Civil Rights Portends
Disaster.
NO HALF-AMERICAN STATUS
—
Country Cannot Endure Unless All
American Citizens .Are Accorded
Full Rights and Equal
Opportunities.
Chicago.—Demanding for colored
Americans full civic rights and equal
opportunities with all other citizens.
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt addressed
a crowded and enthusiastic mass
meeting of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple, which closed its 17th annual con
ference here.
“I believe that the work the N. A. A.
C. P. is doing is thoroughly patriotic
and constructive,” said Colonel Roose
velt. "It is American in the proper
sense of the wordd.
“The United States is a country
wherein all citizens are supposed to
have an equal share in the govern
ment. We are, according to the prin
ciples on which this nation yv»s found
eel, equal partners in its governmental
affairs. Any man or group of men
who attempt to deny full civic rights
to any citizen on account of' race,
creed or color is committing a thor
oughly un-American act, one that is
subversive of the ideals of the coun
try.
“Your organization, as I see it, is
striving to obtain full constitutional
rights for colored Americans and by
opening opportunities to them to help
them build themselves into better and
finer citizens. All colored Americans
must have full governmental rights.
There must be no distinctions made
by law either covertly or openly
against any of our citizens. In certain
states by subterfuges as to registra
tion or simply by force, colored citi
zens are denied the vote. Any stat"
which prevents its colored citizens
from exercising their privilege of the
franchise simply because they are
colored, is subverting the constitution
of the United States. Every real
American should demand that this
evil be set right and do his level best j
to see that his demands receive proper:
attention.
“Equally important with govern
mental rights are civic opportunities.
Colored Americans must be given
the opportunity to get the proper edu
(Continued on Page Four.)
N. A. A. C. I’. ENDS SUCCESSFUL
ANNUAL MEET IN CHICAGO
Chicago — With the presentation
June 29 before a crowded and enthu
siastic gathering in Wendell Phillips
High school of the Spingarn- medal
by Dr. John Haynes Holmes of New
York to Dr. Carter G. Woodson of
Washington, editor of The Jour
nal of Negro History, and author of
numerous historical books or. the Ne
gro in America, there came to an end
the 17th annual conference of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People.
A profound impression was made
on the city of Chicago by the confer
ence, among the outstanding features
of the week being a luncheon given
to the officers and directors of the
N. A. A. C. P., by the Woman's Club
of Chicago, one of the oldest and most
prominent bodies of its kind in the
country. At this luncheon the chief
speakers included Miss Mary Mc
Dowell, commissioner of public wel
fare of the City of Chicago, Profes
sors Tufts and Farris of the Uni
versity of Chifago, Dr. W. E. B. Du
Bois, James Weldon Johnson and Mrs.
Addie W. Hunton.
Another event that attracted much
comment was the unannounced visit
to one of the business sessions of the
conference of Julius Itosenwald, well
known for his educational activities in
behalf of colored people in the south.
Mr. Itosenwald addressed the confer
ence briefly, commending its work and
aims and stating that his interest in
the cause of the Negro proceeded
from his interest in the welfare of the
entire country; for he felt the coun
try could not develop as it ought to
if 10 per cent or more of the popu
lation were denied opportunity.
At the Sunday afternoon mass meet
ing of tlie conference in the Audi
torium theater, addressed by Clar
ence Harrow, Janies Weldon Johnson
and Arthur B. Spingarn, a crowd es
timated at 2,500 filled the entire au
ditorium and numbers of people
crowded the street vainly seeking
admission.
Mr. Harrow commented sarcastical
ly on the white man’s feeling of his
own superiority. “I never yet knew a
white man to object to the presence
of a Negro anywhere if that Negro
was working for him,” said Mr. Har
row. Of the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored Peo
ple, Mr. Harrow said:
“There is no other organization,
| secular or religious, or all of them
put together, that compares with this
Assciation for service to the Negro.
Never should the colored people of
America let them lack ample funds
for their great work. They are the
only organized body of men and
women having both the intention and
the power to protect the Negro’s lib
erties am^ rights. They have sense
enough to know that the Negro can
not become a free man by begging
from the whites or by waiting for aid
from the clouds. The officers and
leaders of the N. A. A. C. 1’. are the
peers of any «ien of any color on the
face of the earth.”
REV. J. S. BLAINE GOES
TO GARY, INDIANA
Te Rev. J. S. Blaine, who has served
the Cleaves Temple Colored M. E.
church for the last three years, has
lieen assigned to Gary, Ind., and will
preach his closing sermon Sunday
evening at 8 o’clock.
He has added to the Cleaves church
more than a hundred members and
reduced the church indebtedness in
principal and interest $6,060, with
church debt paid up to date.
The Rev. Mr. Blaine said, ”1 regret
very much to leave the many friends
I have made during my stay in the
city," and I leave with most pleasant
memories of these few years 1 have
laliored among the people of Omaha,
whom I have learned to love.
“I have never served a more faith-1
ful and a more loyal group than the
people of Cleaves. I was assigned to
Cleaves from Topeka to take care of
an emergency that arose that necessi
tated a change in the pastorate here.
I rejoice that the Lord has smiled
upon our labors and that we are leav
] ing the church in a splendid way.
There are some outstanding debts, to
the amount of $200 1 should like to
have paid and believe I would have
cleared them up if allowed to stay
until the conference. But Gary needs
! me most. Gary has a basement paid ,
out and about $2,000 in cash on the
erection of a new auditorium. It has
a congregation of !>00 memliers and
pays a salary of $2,400 a year. ’
NEGRO TRAINMEN URGED TO
UNITE MONSTER CONVENTION
TO l!E HELD IN MEMPHIS JULY i*
Nashville, Tenn.— (By the A. N. P.I —
According to an announcement made to
day hy J. H. Eiland, grand president of
the Association of Colored Railway 1 rain
men, a monster meeting of Negro train
men, including hrakemen, porters, and
switchmen will he held in Mainphis, Mon
day, July 19. This meeting will be a
part of the annual convention of the
association, and the purpose of it is to
effect an organization of all groups of
railroad employees under one association.
Mrs. James H. Wilson leaves Saturdav
night for a three weeks' visit with rela
tives in I.awrence, Kansas, and other
points in Kansas.
NINE LYNCHINGS FIRST
SIX MONTHS OF YEAR
Tuskegee, Ala.—(By the A. N. P.) —
According to the records compiled at
Tuskegee Institute in the department of
records and research that in the first six
months of 1926 there were nine lynchings.
This number is the same as the number
for the first six months of 1925, it is
4 more than the number 5 for the first
six months of 1925. 6 less than the num
l<er 15 for the first six months of 1923,
21 less than the number 30 for the first
six months of 1922. and 27 less than the
number 36 for the first six months of
1921.
The races of the persons lynched and
the numlier in each race were: Negro 6:
white. 2: Indian I. The offenses charged
were: murder, 3; rape. 1; attempted rape,
2; making improper proposals to women,
I; burglary, 1; wounding officer of the
law, 1.
The states in which lynchings occurred
ami the ndmlier in each state are as
follows: Arkansas, 1; Florida. 3; Ken
tucky. 1; Mississippi, 2; New Mexico, 1;
Texas, 1.
EQUAL RIGHTS LEAGUE
DELEGATION CALLS ON
PRESIDENT COOLIDGE
Washington, D. C.—The National Fqual
Rights l.egue and the I nited Colored Com
mercial Committee hail an audience at the
While House, Friday, at which time they
presented the race's sesqui-centennial
of the Declaration of Independence peti
tion, against federal employee segregation,
at the middle of American Independence
Week. Twenty persons composed the dele
gation. The audience was conducted hy
Maurice W. Spencer, treasurer of the
league, who introduced the delegates, ex
plicitly stating their purpoes. After in
troductions he presented Wm. Monroe
Trotter, of Boston, secretary of the N.
F. R. L., who presented the petition to
the President. He placed on the table
a big pile of petitions with 25,000 signa
tures from 40 states specifying one from
Maine, and four from California, saying
they proved universal geographical oppo
sition to federal segregation. He also pre
sented one from the “372nd Battalion,
1 Massachusetts National Guards which Mr.
Coolidge authorized when governor. Mr.
Trotter read the petition and declared seg
regation to be inequality of rights and
asking for its removal for the race which
shed the first blood for independence,
lie then asked the President to lead the
way in having the United States make the
150th anniversary of American independ
ence the beginning of a new American
epoch for the abolishment of color caste
proscription, segregation and public ostra
cism, by himself removing segregation of
the colored clerks at Washington. He
said this example by the government had
given great impetus to every form of seg
regation and unless the President would
abolish it now disaster will be inevitable.
Finally, he urged abolition was a fair
return for over 150 years of fighting,
dying and sacrificing and in just appre
ciation. of a perfect record of loyalty with
never a traitor.
The President replied to the spokesman
in a calm, friendly manner, that some
segregation had been removed and he
would continue to remove more gradually
until it was all removed.
SHE WAS COLORED, BUT NOT
AN AMERICAN NEGRO, SO
SHE GOT A PULLMAN BERTH
Kansas City. Mn.—Any kind of colored
person in the world ran get better treat
ment in American than the American
Negro who has died to form, save and
perpetuate the ideals of what many call
this wondrous democracy.
If you haven’t heard of any ease before
this. listen to what happened to Senora
de Mena, of Nicaragua, who was a visitor
in Kansas City last week.
Mrs. de Mena, a U. N. I. A. worker,
who was the house guest of Mrs. V. J.
Williams, 1323 Jackson street, went to
the Pullman window at the Union station
and received the same answer that many,
many darkskinned travelers have received:
“W'e have no berths ... if you
come hack at six o’clock, perhaps . .”
But Mrs. de Mena was not accustomed
to surh treatment. “You have not even
looked,” she said with an accent, “you
look at my face and decide you have
none. If you were in my country . .
Then she went upstairs to the passenger
agent. After he examined her passports
and credentials, he, himself went down
to the Pullman window and returned with
a reservation for her.
It does not pay to fight and die for
a country, evidently, for even with the
fighting and dying, one cannot enter cer
tain schools, hold certain jobs, buy cer
tain homes or even reserve a berth in a
Pullman.
It pays to speak broken English and
come from another country—a country as
small, even, as Nicaragua.
NEGROES TAUNT SOUTHERNERS
Beverly, N. J.—(By the A. N. P.) —
White victims of a Negro mob here com
plain that trouble broke when they'got
-tired of hearing Negroes refer to them
as Georgia “crackers”. The whites, who
are said to have been attacked, were
imported laborers for a canning factory
and most of them came from the south,
especially Georgia.
Mrs. Rebecca Cuff. 2219 Grace street,
has been removed to Paxton Memorial
hospital, where her condition has some
what improved.
JUNES ARE CHOSEN
TO DECIDE WINNERS
OF HARMON AWARD
Outstanding Representatives of Mu
sic, Arts, Science and Business
Will Select Successful
Competitors.
RACE IS WELL REPRESENTED
Among Judges in Each Field Se
lected to Stimulate Creative Ef
fort Among Negroes Are
Race Members.
Washington. — Outstanding musi
cians, artists, scientists, educators,
religious leaders, university profes
sors, economists and business men
will serve as judges for the Harmon
awards for distinguished achievement
by Negroes of American residence.
This announcement was made today
by the Commission on Race Relations
of the Federal Council of Churches,
105 East Twenty-second street, New
York, which has been asked to ad
minister the awards. These judges
will consider nominations and make
awards to Negroes of American resi
dence who have made creative
achievements in the seven major
fields of literature, music, fine arts,
industry including business, science
including invention, education and
religion, and also to a candidate,
white or Negro, who has made an out
standing achievement in race rela
tions.
The awards are offered by the Har
mon Foundation “to give annual rec
ognition and stimulus to creative
work among Negroes.” The period
for making nominations or filing ap
plications is open until August 1 this
year. Names of successful candidates
will be announced about December 1.
“I believe that the Hannon Foun
dation will afford a rallying point
about which ambitious Negro men and
women can gather,” said William E.
Harmon, president of the Harmon
Foundation, in telling of the appoint
ment of the judges. “It offers a
platform from which their worthwhile
accomplishments will receive the de
gree of public attention and consid
eration to which they are entitled.
“No self-respecting Negro desires
to secure advantage through special
favor without due consideration be
ing given to his merit. All he asks
is a fair field of opportunity, words
of encouragement, a sympathetic un
derstanding, and the assurance that
his work will be judged on a par
with the work of the white race,
without either unfair discriminatiin,
(Continued on Page Four.)
\jC> *
V;,.; : .
---—-—.. " — . .. " ~ .... ..Q By Tfc« ▲Mociftted Pm*.
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL SESSION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 23-20.
, , cjoo deleBate9 representing every state in the Union, who gathered in Chicago. Seated in the center art,: James Weldon Johnson, secretary and Mrs. Johnson Others in the front row are Arthur B.
Spingarn^donor^ cd*the^Splngarn medal), Mr and Mrs. Walter White; Mary White Ovington, Robert W. Bagnall, Harry E. Davis, and Dr. W. E. B. DuBois, editor of The Crisis.